SafeGlaze UK and Safestyle UK were companies that dominated the industry news in a big way in 2018. The former now doesn’t exist, but that still doesn’t stop the business from making news.

Last week we had news stemming from both companies breaking on the local paper the Telegraph & Argus. Here’s the key bits from each story.

SafeGlaze UK owed more than £15m

Last Friday the T&A ran a story which broke down how much the now collapsed SafeGlaze owed to it’s various creditors. The numbers are stark:

Documents from the administrators Armstrong Watson LLP show creditors were owed £15.3m in total with Mr Misra owed £10.5m, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs £1m, Northern Irish manufacturer Camden Group £2.5m and a total of 67 various other claimants £1.3m.

Read the full T&A article here

It’s the first time we have had the chance to see what levels of investment were put into the company by it’s owner. It’s also the first time we have been given any solid information as to how much various companies were owed by SafeGlaze. The article goes on to say that Camden have reportedly had to cut jobs to cover the losses suffered by the collapse.

The article goes on to say:

The administrators’ document listed that SafeGlaze had just £240,000 in realisable assets, including £10,000 for office equipment, fixtures and fittings and £230,000 in bank accounts.

They owed a lot of money to a lot of creditors. Unfortunately, it looks as though many won’t be seeing that money.

DGB Stats

High Court case

In a separate story, which was published on January 11th, it was reported that Safestyle co-founder John Ross had lost a High Court case in which he claimed he was owed £27m.

John Ross, who turned down a £1 million settlement offer from Mitu Misra, has been left to pick up lawyers’ bills likely to run into several million pounds.

He claimed that Mr Misra had “reneged on their deal” and said that “betrayal” pushed him into insolvency.

Judge John Kimbell dismissed his claim against Mr Misra on Friday after analysing evidence at a High Court trial in London late last year.

Read the full T&A article here

Both these stories of course have very little effect on either of the companies.

Share price

Aside from all of this, it’s interesting to note that Safestyle’s share price has had a fairly solid start to the year. Nothing spectacular by any means, but considering the general volatility on stock markets around the world, Safestyle’s share price has been quietly getting on with it’s own business:

Credit: Bloomberg

It won’t be all that long until we get another trading update, and perhaps some forward guidance in relation to Brexit and their predictions for the coming months. I suspect for the whole industry “volatile” and “uncertainty” might be words we hear a bit more of.

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